It was founded in Chicago in 1905 at a convention of 200 socialists, anarchists and radical trade unionists who were opposed to the policies of the contemporaneous AFL union.
At its peak in 1923, the Wobblies claimed about 100,000 members. Today, the IWW numbers around 2000 members worldwide.
The IWW contends that all workers should be united within a single union as a class, and that the wage system be abolished.
The union's goals still include "promoting worker solidarity in the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the employing class."
Along with Starbucks, Borders Books is a current target of IWW campaigns to unionize employees.
The Wobblies most famous member today is Noam Chomsky, radical Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at MIT.
Leni
That's interesting - I didn't know that Chomsky was a Wobblie. It figures, though. He would be against wages. If he had to produce in order to get paid, he'd be panhandling.